Part I: MBA Student's Research Financial Access At Birth

The following is written by Brent Peterson MBA 2011 for his Applied Management Research Project:

December 10, 2010

What an interesting place. Flew in yesterday. Got a taxi, the taxi driver missed our exit, so he just put on his blinkers and started backing up on the freeway. Woke up this morning at the Park Hotel. Went down and had breakfast, which was a mix of maple donuts and Indian food (we were really excited about the maple donuts). Indian food is the same food for breakfast that you get for lunch or dinner. I went out for a tour of the city while Jack finished up some remaining school work, only to find out later from Priya that I paid way too much for my rickshaw. No big deal. He took me around the city and then took me to all of his friend’s shops or the shops where he receives a commission. We later found out that this is standard practice. I think I frustrated the first shop owner because I had no intention of buying anything.

Priya arrived around noon. Team 41 was now 3/4th present. Lena’s visa had not yet come so she had to reschedule her flight. Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of what would become her four-day travel nightmare. We got lunch and walked around a little bit before we met with Rajesh Bansal, our main contact at the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Rajesh was surprised and impressed by our knowledge of the goals, functions, and progress of UIDAI. He kept saying, “that kind of question comes from someone who has done their homework.” We ended up having a two-hour conversation with him and left feeling very optimistic about our upcoming field visits.

The next day we drove for five hours to get to the Taj Mahal. Absolutely breathtaking. We went with Raj, a friend of Priya’s. We tried bargaining with locals to get us into shorter line, but in the end just ended up waiting. Everything is a negotiation here. It makes the simplest exercises interesting and a challenge. Luckily the line turned out to be only 20 minutes instead of the two hours we’d heard about. We had a great time. Between the four of us we must have taken over 1,000 pictures. Jack and I got some strange stares from two guys. I feared that they were sizing us up to rob us, but I think they were just awestruck with Jack and I being the tallest, whitest pair of Americans they’d ever seen. We got home pretty late and crashed.

Stay Tuned for Part II on Monday, January 31st!

UCLA International Business Association Treks To London

Over the past Thanksgiving weekend, 21 UCLA Anderson students went to London for the seventh annual career trek, hosted by the International Business Association. In conjunction with five other US MBA programs, the trip consisted of finance, consulting, and sports/entertainment fields. Sreesha Vaman of ULCA Anderson noted that "above all else, we learned that while they all work for US-based companies, they have loads of opportunities to expand their business in Europe - in many cases, moreso than their US-based colleagues who face a fragmented saturation of the American entertainment market." Ranging from the NFL and NBA to partners at Goldman Sachs and Deloitte, students had the opportunity to meet with senior executives, as well as recruiters and fellow MBAs.

UCLA CIBER sponsors Dr. Judee Timm to travel to Singapore and Malaysia

Dr. Judee Timm, of Monterey Peninsula College, recently set out on a Faculty Development Trip to Singapore and Malaysia to research and expand her, as well as here program's international business competencies. The trip is sponsored by UCLA, USC, and San Diego State CIBER in an effort to promote a greater foundation of business expertise among community college faculty.

If you too would like to follow her adventures, please click on the link below:

http://jtimm.tumblr.com/

USC 24th Annual Asia/Pacific Business Outlook Conference

On March 28th and 29th, USC will be hosting their 24th annual Asia/Pacific Business Outlook (APBO) Conference, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The Senior Commercial Officers (SCO’s) from American embassies, consulates and institutes in the following economies will participate in APBO 2010: Australia/New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The SCO’s will provide “Country Outlook” seminars, will speak in small-group workshops and will be available for private appointments with APBO participants. Each of them will also be accompanied by an American executive business partner from “their” country. An additional 25 business practitioners and academic experts on Asia complete the APBO “cast.”

For the second year, APBO will feature special sessions on sustainability, as well as broader environmental issues and policies in the Asia/Pacific region. Each Country Outlook session will feature “sustainability business opportunities”— energy and water conservation, renewable energy and clean coal technologies as well as the wider green technology industry. Each of our Country Outlook speakers will discuss new national programs promoting sustainability business opportunities in their respective countries.

APBO conference attendees will gain unparalleled access to Asia business experts. In two days, 50 Asia experts will provide 60 seminars and workshops on fourteen high-growth markets around the Pacific Rim. More than 50 percent of all APBO sessions are dedicated to Q & A, and over 100 hours of private consultation appointments with the experts are reserved for conference participants.